Person

Ling, Tom

• Ling, Youm

1920-1995

Tom LING was born on August 19, 1920 as LING Youm, the eldest son of LING How, a Halifax farmer. George LING was Tom's paternal uncle.

As a teenager, Tom learned how to be a commercial radio operator. When WWII broke out, he joined the merchant marines and was a radio operator on the Dutch oil tanker named “The Tibia.” The ship was torpedoed twice while at sea with Tom on it.

After the war, Tom attended university in Indiana and obtained a degree in electrical engineering. However, when he returned to Nova Scotia to find work, no private firm or provincial or municipal agency would hire him because he was Chinese. Tom was very angry and protested the discrimination.

Eventually, Tom ended up working for the federal government. He became a mines and technical surveyor, then a geological surveyor in Ottawa and later in Frobisher Bay. With a successful career already, he returned to university to earn a professional engineering degree at McGill.

Relatively late in life, Tom married Florence Wark, a woman of Scottish descent whom he had met through work. They never had children.

Tom died November 28, 1995.

Ling, How (1883-1963)

Ling, Twesing (1899-1962)

Ling, Frank (b. 1922)

Description supplied by collector/curator